Posted on 07/01/2015 6:45:10 AM PDT by don-o
Dallas attorney Clint Broden has been loudly skeptical of the repeated and clumsy lies official Waco has been telling the public since nine men were murdered outside the Twin Peaks restaurant on May 17. Broden has been sending out daily press releases and holding news conferences on the case for two weeks. Today State District Judge Matt Johnson, at the instigation of District Attorney Abel Reyna, forbid Broden from discussing the Twin Peaks Massacre publically.
Johnson issued the order at a subpoena hearing. Broden had subpoenaed video shot by the Twin Peaks restaurant on May 17 in order to better defend his client, a Scimitar Motorcycle Club member named Matt Clendennen. Johnson told Broden he could have the video but he could only show it to Clendennen and any experts he night hire.
The gag order is not a surprise. Reyna has been threatening defense attorneys with it for at least a fortnight. When contacted by telephone, a representative of Broden’s Dallas law firm, Broden, Mickelsen, Helms & Snipes, tersely explained that the gag order also forbids anyone at the firm from discussing the gag order or the process under which the gag order may be appealed.
Protecting Whom
Nevertheless, it is a matter of public record that Broden intends to appeal the gag order and hopes to release the video. Numerous officials in Waco have already discussed the video publically and have, apparently, lied about its contents. The gag order seems intended to protect public and police officials from being confronted with their own lies. Johnson said he was forbidding discussion of the evidence because he was concerned about contaminating the jury pool. The standard reason for issuing gag, or “protective,” orders is to protect a person’s right to a fair trial. Considering the extent to which Waco officials, particularly Waco police propagandist W. Patrick Swanton, have already prejudiced most of the world against the defendants in this case, Johnson’s argument seems absurd.
There is no certainty that the gag order will eventually be overturned but it seems likely that it will be.
Gag orders oppose the people’s right to know and in numerous cases they are opposed by large and rich news gathering organizations like The Associated Press but in this case, the AP has already seen the video Broden subpoenaed this morning and publically described it. Since a case titled Nebraska Press Ass’n v. Stuart, courts have been forbidden from restraining what the press may say or to whom it may talk. But only the lawyers in Waco are being restrained. Restrictions on lawyer speech are usually justified by the claim that attorneys are officers of the court and thus are more subject to court-imposed limits to preserve the “fairness” of a trial.
A Tale Of Two Reynas
Next the Twin Peaks video will be “discovered” to every other lawyer in the case and all of those lawyers will be subject to the same gag order the judge issued this morning. When that happens, coverage of the Twin Peaks Massacre will, for all practical purposes, cease.
The constitutionality of gag orders is unresolved and subject to considerable debate. Constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky has argued that defense lawyers should be no more subject to gag orders than the press is. In court this morning, Broden offered Judge Johnson a cogent and ironic argument against the gag order imposed on him.
Broden cited a March 2007 by Texas 10th Court of Appeals that said a similar gag order issued by state district Judge Reva Towslee-Corbett was overly broad and was “a clear abuse of discretion.” The author of that decision was Judge Felipe Reyna. Reyna found that Towslee-Corbett’s gag order was a prior restraint of free speech that is “presumptively unconstitutional,” without specific evidence that the gag was necessary to prevent “imminent and irreparable” harm to the outcome of the trial and without proof that the gag order was the “least restrictive means” to prevent that harm. Judge Reyna is the father of the McLennan County District Attorney who requested and got this morning’s order against Broden.
“partisan “ accounts don’t matter.
They arrested a bunch of people, applied the same charges to everyone and gave everyone the same bail.
Gee the courthouse gang covering up for each other. Who would have ever thought that government lawyers would act like that?
“They arrested a bunch of people, applied the same charges to everyone and gave everyone the same bail.”
Given the extraordinary circumstances, the number of people involved and the legal requirements on government and the courts, and the knowledge the facts are not yet in and won’t be for months, how would you suggest they handle it?
“BTW, does anyone know how many of the 170 are still in jail?”
As of Monday it was seven if I remember correctly.
” how would you suggest they handle it?”
We have already been told that they should have taken names and addresses and not arrested anyone.
So you’re saying they arrested people for murder without any facts?
I’d suggest they not go around arresting people at random.
“Judge Sullivan: Some Arrests at 2004 RNC Lacked Probable Cause “
Holly smoke, what a mess. I have no idea what the legalities are in the situation presented. But officers are individuals acting in a group for the defense of society and property. A mob is composed of individuals with individual agendas, some of which may be criminal and some of which may be legal. The criminals perpetrate a crime and the presence and active participation, perhaps in defending the criminals from capture, tends to implicate all protester parties in the offense. In Florida, if several people are in a group, traveling in the same car, for example, and one of them kills somebody over a drug debt, then all are equally guilty. (This happened to my neighbor’s kids friends.) On the wider scale, Hamas shoots rockets at Israel from the courtyard of a UN run school. Israel responds by bombing the school. In all cases the “innocent” suffer for being “with” the guilty.
This is why we have courts and judges, to sort these things out. The one thing I am certain of, the media will take the most partisan and emotional view because it’s drama. Drama makes viewership and viewership is as valuable to them as gold coins.
“We have already been told that they should have taken names and addresses and not arrested anyone.”
Told by whom? How many fake ID’s have you seen? The ones I’ve seen certainly fooled me. In many cases people are arrested and then during the fingerprint search found to be using false identification. If names and addresses were taken then the innocent would indeed have been treated properly. However, the guilty would be free also and they might go on committing crimes. Imagine the outrage if they’d actually been at the scene, guilty of murder, but let go. Whatever public official responsible would certainly be looking for a new job as a checker at Wal-Mart.
As a member of the general populace I’d prefer that the police be allowed to verify the identity of each person. That means an arrest. And, given the circumstances of bodies on the ground, regardless of who eventually turns out to be responsible, an arrest is in order.
Unlike the courts, we are only given one side by a partisan news organization and a legal defender who is allowed to lie as much as he likes to the press and the viewer.
“Told by whom? “
By some of the ‘constitutional scholars’ that post here.
Oh, funny story on fake ID’s. A contractor who was supposed to remove and replace flooring in the defense plant where I work showed up with about 15 illegal aliens. At the security desk they each presented what appeared to be a valid Florida driver’s license. The FDL is a fairly complex one with lots of anti-tamper features. Each license did indeed have the correct photo, but they all had the same number and address information. The guard said that if it had just been one of them he’d have been fooled.
The contractor had to take his cheap labor away and hire American workers. I’d imagine he lost his shirt as his low bid was certainly predicated on almost free labor.
That contractor should have been arrested, property seized and exiled.
Have you ever been to a Twin Peaks? There are several around the DFW Metro. I just drove through the parking lot and saw a lot of bikes with a couple of guards monitoring the parking lot. Not your average security guards but biker guards.
In that brief moment it was very clear that TP is a big biker hangout all day every day. TP makes their money that way, the manager had a vested interest in saying he had not been requested. He was clearly motivated from several angles and he sure doesn’t want to contradict the Banditos, he’s probably a member. That’s just how I’d work it if I were the Bandito’s.
This is really pretty interesting stuff, seeing all the sides face off and tell their tales.
Clendennen's attorney, Broden, offered this metaphor: 'Sunshine is the best disinfectant'.
This IS a complicated case. The vast amount of evidence needs more eyes on it not fewer. What benefit is it to the arrestees to keep the evidence only in the hands of law enforcement? The arrestees' attorneys have requested that videos of the event be made public.
It will be hard to get fair trials for the arrestees after the very public statements made by the Waco PD, and others, maligning the arrestees. How is access to the videos going to make this any worse for the arrestees?
“Oh, funny story on fake ID’s”
A few years back in Sacramento a group was busted for selling CA DL’s out of a tent in a plaza parking lot. What was odd was that it took months and months of investigation before they got busted.
So would you fault the Waco PD for not going to court and getting it shut down as a public nuisance?
Would you fault the Waco PD for their infrequent visits to this den of iniquity?
None of which explains the $1 million dollar bond for all individuals arrested.
but keep trying
“That contractor should have been arrested, property seized and exiled.”
Oh, goodness! Let me explain about how companies think. An employee was murdered in his home. The police wanted to interview his work associates. The company policy said, essentially, stone wall. I looked up the policy and was amazed they’d put anything that negative down on paper. Companies hear no, see no and do plenty.
Yeah nobody should have an opinion on the Constitution except those approved by the government to have an opinion.
“I just drove through the parking lot and saw a lot of bikes with a couple of guards monitoring the parking lot.”
That seems to be what happened in Waco. The Bandidos were upset that the Cossacks had invaded and started a row with a Cossack guard.
Patrol officers were seldom sent to investigate trouble at Twin Peaks restaurant prior to the May deadly biker shootout in Waco, Texas, records obtained by Yahoo News reveal.
The scarce number of calls conflicts with how law enforcement portrayed the self-described “breastaurant” immediately after the brazen lunch-hour rampage.
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